Idea of self-marginalization

When we give ourselves the perfect royal screw out of pure ignorance or ill-trained lapdogs you cringe how our benefactors in Washington would see our grand mañana contributing to self-marginalization, financial demise and misery.

I’m sure the Bloomberg story has metastasized—spread all over—Washington, “staggering” members of Congress at the NMI’s largess that out-earned Macau’s casino titans. It forces key players to observe the CNMI hence: U.S. casino industry including committee chairmen who have given generously to SNAP and other entitlements to the islands.

Relying on casual relationship with the Donald would be delusional.

Would grant funds for basic infrastructure, healthcare, education and other socio-economic needs be generously considered when we refuse to tax the $13.5 billion the casino industry here reportedly raked in? The issue boils down to the realistic exercise of self-government that includes shoring up one’s financial needs through taxation. Did you get this, pal?

Washington knows our old retirement program is bankrupt, CHC is funded on a half-cocked basis thus we can’t even buy pajamas for in-patients. Moreover, we had to endure healthcare rationing. We can’t even provide sufficient funds for medical referral.

And we refuse to tax Best Sunshine for the $13.5 billion it just collected? At 5 percent, it translates into $695 million we could spread into healthcare, education, retirement, basic infrastructure, local SNAP, etc. Sayu?

The grating issue is the lack of funds for local needs while billions of dollars are washing up our shores. Did you get that, pal? Is this really pure ignorance? Then why chance seeking re-election if you can’t employ vision and attribution to institute true representation and the use of due diligence to dispose of issues that matter by doing them right? Why is the NMI in such disarray?

Housing issues
One of the strong indicators that an economy is thriving is in the performance of its housing industry. It signals economic prosperity moving in, thus people have well paying jobs enabling them to begin building and spending.

Is this the case here today? Wasn’t there an evacuation of folks of some 3,000 to 4,000 to Guam, Hawaii and the U.S. mainland in recent past? What triggered the evacuation?

The hardship falls under a single umbrella we know of as the “economy.” It’s far from making huge strides as to ably lift all boats. And not after 25 years of stagnant wages and salaries under Republican charge! In other words, there’s no improvement in family income throughout the period. Therefore, families can’t lift a finger on building or buying the first family home!

Ooops! One would assume that perceptual economic improvement including the eventual establishment of the casino industry would trigger a surge that lifts all boats. But the firm bought large parcels of land with houses and apartments. This scheme effectively alienated assimilation into the local community.

We see stories of economic improvements in the pages of the newspapers sliding off the edge and far removed from trickling down to family pocketbooks. Sing it, “Where have all the flowers gone!”

Is there a chance to revive the mighty dollars of the mid-’80s? There was the Japanese bubble that burst and took out the wind from beneath our wings. The apparel industry is history. Would investments that just took off lose its luster to external disposition? Take a closer ocular review and place it on your radar screen with some sense of vision, integrity and humility.

Retreat: One could appreciate the confused mindsets on imperial Capital Hill literally struggling to deal with vital issues of substance. Most have morphed into chaotic stage. I don’t revel in my laurels hoping it fumbles the ball habitually. After all, each failure translates into unsolicited abysmal hardship for villagers everywhere. What then is the missing equation?

About the only thing I’ve heard so far is: “I don’t know Maria.” I mean there’s that serious sentiment of distrust in civic institutions that sent any decent mind quizzing the lack of agility to rein-in one failure from tripping everything else behind it. But the steady tune of “que sera, sera” gets louder by the day too. Troubling!

There’s dire need for a collective retreat among the elected elite to reset buttons before our future is turned dead and motionless like the MV Luta in the Tanapag Harbor.

Local lingo: In search of understanding why the elected elite has missed their bus rides time and again (people’s issues), I listened to a House session on Channel 23. There was a seesaw debate. Then members voted and disposed of the issue.

Announcing the vote, the presiding officer said, “That tooks care of it!” Wow! I didn’t know past tense could be re-inflected to substitute as present tense. I would settle for “That takes care of it” but not “tooks.”

To avoid any future embarrassment in your misapplication of syntactical construction, please stick to our native tongue. It grants greater understanding and clarity too! Plus, no one would “tooks” you for you erroneous reinvention of the rules of inflection.

Disarray: Away from the raucous noise of the holiday season, I’d defer to the quiet corner of my mind to retain calm and sanity. Troubling though the discordant echo from a distance that kept returning during the wee hours of the morning or sunset. Why is the NMI in such disarray?

It reminded me of a joke about the difference between micro and macroeconomics. The former is when you are broke, the latter when the government is underwater. Collectively, both are broke, and you wonder if the mounting fiscal anomaly hasn’t descended into the cranium of our men of infinitesimal wisdom.